To describe the inner workings of the underground economy that exist in many urban communities, Columbia professor Sudhir Venkatesh told a story at the 23rd annual public lecture hosted by the Urban Studies Department.
Venkatesh, an ethnographer of life in urban neighborhoods, conducted his research on the intricacies of the underground economy in Brownsville, Chicago, an extremely poor and predominantly African American community.
Described as "ubiquitous" for its inclusion of both illicit and licit activities, Venkatesh said an underground economy exists in most urban ghettos.
Contrary to the commonly held belief that the poor are lazy, Venkatesh stressed that members of this marginalized sector in fact maintain a complex economy based fundamentally on interpersonal relationships.
He illustrated the complexity of this market through the story he told of a car mechanic, James, who paid a local minster a fee in exchange for the right to set up shop behind his church.
When faced with a competing mechanic from a neighboring community, Carl, who was seducing James' clients by lowering prices, James demanded that Carl leave the area, claiming that he violated a hustling code.
The community felt the need to create a court system to make rulings on James' case and others.
Claiming that "it's good to have an economy based on trust," Venkatesh stressed the importance of understanding the historical and social context of the economy.
The court proclaimed James's hustling code legitimate on the basis of a historical precedent in which the oldest person claiming presence owns the space and denied Carl the right to work in James' area of business.
"It was an important way of looking at what's going on in poor communities" asserted Elaine Simon, co-director of the Urban Studies Program, who felt that Venkatesh "spoke to a large audience."
The lecture was open to the public and attracted a myriad of students, faculty and other members of the greater Philadelphia community.
"It was interesting how in these community courts there was no specific principle on which to base their decisions" College freshman Natalie Capasso stated.
The ongoing theme of the annual public lecture sponsored by the Urban Studies Program remains poverty and the status of poor people in American cities.
Each year a committee comprised of students in their junior year in the Urban Studies Program convene to nominate the lecturer. This year there were five formal candidates from which Venkatesh was chosen.
About 50 Urban Studies seniors read Venkatesh's most recent book, Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor, which they discussed for two weeks prior to attending the lecture.
When asked if he envisioned a society in the future without an underground economy, Venkatesh replied "no" and "didn't think that was necessarily wrong."
